The Best and Worst in Blue

An NYPD officer from Forest Hills was arrested last month on charges of planning a crime so gruesome that it looked like a script for a cheesy Hollywood slasher movie.

Officer Gilberto Valle, 28, reportedly was the leader of a plot to cook and eat a number of women after raping and torturing them, according to a criminal complaint unsealed in Manhattan federal court.

Valle and his pals were targeting about 100 women he had collected information on, according to U.S. Attorney Preet Bharara. Bharara said Valle used his position as an NYPD officer to access a database called the National Crime Information Center to gain additional information on his targets.

His attorney said Valle was only kidding, just playing a game. Unless there is a plea, a jury will decide if he was serious. The evidence suggests the plot was more than talk.

Bharara noted, “This case is all the more disturbing when you consider Valle’s position as a New York City police officer and his sworn duty to serve and protect. Our investigation is ongoing.”

Valle has done tremendous damage to his fellow officers. Even if this was just a sick game, he has disgraced his uniform.

But in the same week we saw 1,000 police officers from across the nation line the street outside St. Christopher’s Church in Baldwin, L.I., to honor an officer who by his sacrifice stands as one of the best.

Officer Arthur Lopez was shot and killed in Bellerose after he and his partner pulled over a driver who was suspected of being in an auto accident, according to the Nassau County Police Department. The alleged killer went on to hijack another car killing the driver in his foiled getaway.

“You should know that Emergency Service is the hardest and most sought-after assignments in the department,” said the Nassau police commissioner.

We hope the suspected evil plot of one cop will not cloud the reality that, like Lopez, officers risk their lives on a daily basis, never knowing when the next driver may be ready to kill rather than be questioned.

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